The readings for these three days tell of the mercy–pity, even–of God. In 2 Kings and Isaiah God delivers the Kingdom of Judah from threats. The core message of Revelation is to remain faithful during persecution, for God will win in the end. Finally, Jesus takes pity on two blind men and heals them in Matthew 20.

On the other side of mercy one finds judgment. The Kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians in 2 Kings 17 and 2 Chronicles 32. The Kingdom of Judah went on to fall to the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire in 2 Kings 25 and 2 Chronicles 36. The fall of Babylon (the Roman Empire) in Revelation was bad news for those who had profited from cooperation with the violent and economically exploitative institutions thereof (read Chapter 18).

In an ideal world all would be peace and love. We do not live in an ideal world, obviously. Certain oppressors will insist on oppressing. Some of them will even invoke God (as they understand God) to justify their own excuse. Good news for the oppressed, then, will necessarily entail bad news for the oppressors. The irony of the situation is that oppressors. The irony of the situation is that oppressors hurt themselves also, for whatever they do to others, they do to themselves. That is a cosmic law which more than one religion recognizes. Only victims are present, then, and some victims are also victimizers.

Loving our neighbors is much better, is it not?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 20, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ALCUIN OF YORK, ABBOT OF TOURS

THE FEAST OF JOHN JAMES MOMENT, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 47

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The Assigned Readings:

2 Kings 17:24-41 (Monday)

2 Kings 18:9-18 (Tuesday)

2 Kings 18:19-25; 19:1-7 (Wednesday)

Psalm 101 (All Days)

1 Timothy 3:14-4:5 (Monday)

1 Timothy 4:6-16 (Tuesday)

Luke 18:18-30 (Wednesday)

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Those who in secret slander their neighbors I will destroy;

those who have a haughty look and a proud heart I cannot abide.

My eyes are upon the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me,

and only those who lead a blameless life shall be my servants.

Those who act deceitfully shall not dwell in my house,

and those who tell lies shall not continue in my sight.

I will soon destroy all the wicked in the land,

that I may root out all evildoers from the city of the LORD.

–Psalm 101:5-8, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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That depiction of God is consistent with the one in 2 Kings 17:25, in which, after the fall of the Kingdom of Israel to kill the Assyrians, God sent lions to kill some of the godless settlers. That story troubles me, for, although I do not mistake God for a divine warm fuzzy, I do not confuse God for a vengeful thug either.

The emphasis in the composite pericope from 2 Kings, however, is on King Hezekiah of Judah (reigned 727/715-698/687 B.C.E.) and the predicament of his realm. Judah had to pay tribute to Assyria, after all. Furthermore, Rabshakeh, the envoy of King Shalmaneser V of Assyria (reigned 727-722 B.C.E.), blasphemed, claiming that God was on the side of Assyria and that the people should disregard Hezekiah, who advised trusting in God for deliverance. In 2 Kings 19 God saved Judah from Assyrian forces.

We should trust in God, laying aside our attachments to fear, political power, military might, false teaching, and wealth, among other things. In that list the only inherently negative item is false teaching. Fear can save one’s life and protect one’s health, but it can also lead to violence, hatred, bigotry, and insensitivity to human needs. Wealth is morally neutral, but how one relates to it is not. The same principle applies to political power and military might.

Each of us has attachments which distract from God. These attachments are therefore idols in so far as they distract from God. We might not need to abstain from certain behaviors or goods to get closer to God, but we do need at least to redefine our relationships to them. That is difficult, but it is possible via grace.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 18, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

The prayer for divine destruction of enemies–hardly unique to Psalm 54–does violate the commandment to love one’s enemies as oneself, does it not?

Enemies exist. In the pericopes for these three days alone we read of Midianites, monarchs, Assyrians, Arameans, and corrupt officials from the Temple at Jerusalem. Furthermore, we, if we are to become properly informed, must know that many early Christians regarded Jews who rejected Jesus as enemies. Christianity began as a Jewish sect, one which remained on the Jewish margins. Frustrations over this reality became manifest in, among other texts, the Gospel of John, with its repeated references to “the Jews” in negative contexts. Nevertheless, St. Paul the Apostle, who preached to Gentiles, was always Jewish.

Sometimes enemies are others. On many occasions, however, one can find the enemy looking back at oneself in a mirror. A recurring theological motif in the Hebrew Bible is that the exiles of Hebrew people resulted from rampant societal sinfulness; the collective was responsible. That runs afoul of Western notions of individualism, but one finds it in the pages of the Bible. There are at least two varieties of responsibility and sin–individual and collective. We are responsible to God, for ourselves, and to and for each other. Thus reward and punishment in the Hebrew Bible are both individual and collective. Sometimes, the texts tell us, we bring destruction on ourselves.

But how does that translate into language regarding God? May we take care not to depict God as a cosmic tyrant while investing that God is also merciful. Yes, actions have consequences for ourselves and those around us. Yes, God has sent many prophets, a large number of whom have endured the consequences of rejection. Yes, both judgment and mercy exist in God. I do not presume to know where the former ends and the latter begins; such matters are too great for me, a mere mortal.

No, I reject false certainty and easy answers. No variety of fundamentalism is welcome here. No, I embrace what St. Paul the Apostle called

the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God,

complete with

his judgments

and

inscrutable ways.–Romans 11:33, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)

I favor “the mystery of God,” as in 1 Corinthians 2:1, as well as a relationship with God, which depends on divine faithfulness, not on human wisdom.

One point to note is that Paul does not present Christianity as a set of dogmas or as a manual of advice. It is a story, something that happened, something God has done.–Page 75

Orthodoxy can be healthy, so long as it is neither stale nor unloving. Pietism, with its legalism, is quite unfortunate. Pietism, a reaction against stale orthodoxy, is at least as objectionable as that which it opposes.

Some thoughts of Dr. Carl J. Sodergren (1870-1949), a theologian of the former Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (1860-1962), from 1937 apply well in the context of these pericopes and many circumstances:

Orthodoxy is good. It means adherence to the truth, and no sane man would willingly surrender that. But orthodoxy without love is dangerous. It provides fertile soil for bigotry, hatred, spiritual pride, self-conceit, and a score of other evils which hide the Holy One from the eyes of the world. It turns men into merciless heresy hunters, the most contemptible vermin on earth. It aligns us with the scribes and Pharisees, the priests and high priests of the time of Jesus. Nobody ever questioned their orthodoxy, but because it was loveless, it blinded them to His divinity and made it easier to spike Him to a cross. We are not worried about the trumpet calls to orthodoxy which for some reason have begun to blare may drown out in our hearts the still small voice which prays for unity and love among all Christ’s disciples.

May love of God and for each other be evident in our lives and social structures and institutions. Wherever it is evident, may it increase. May we obey the divine commandment to take care of each other, not to exploit anyone or to discriminate against any person. The Golden Rule is difficult to live, but we have God’s grace available to us; may we avail ourselves of it. We also have an example–Jesus–to follow. May his love be evident (then more so) in us, especially those of us who claim to follow him or to attempt to do so.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 30, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHANN OLAF WALLIN, ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF ARTHUR JAMES MOORE, UNITED METHODIST BISHOP IN GEORGIA

THE FEAST OF HEINRICH LONAS, GERMAN MORAVIAN ORGANIST, COMPOSER, AND LITURGIST

Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada. I invite you to follow it with me.

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2 Kings 17:5-18 (TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures):

Then the king of Assyria marched against the whole land; he came to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured of Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, at the [River] Habor, at the River Gozan, and in the towns of Media.

This happened because the Israelites sinned against the LORD their God, who had freed them from the land of Egypt, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the customs of the nations which the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites and the customs which the kings of Israel had practiced. The Israelites committed against the LORD their God acts which were not right. They built for themselves shrines in all their settlements, from watchtowers to fortified cities; they set up pillars and sacred posts for themselves on every lofty hill and under every leafy tree, and they offered sacrifices there, at all the shrines, like the nations whom the LORD had driven into exile before them. They committed wicked acts to vex the LORD, and they worshiped fetishes concerning which the LORD had said to them,

You must not do this thing.

The LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet [and] every seer, saying:

Turn back from your wicked ways, and observe My commandments and My laws, according to all the Teaching that I commanded your fathers and that I transmitted to you through My servants the prophets.

But they did not obey; they stiffened their necks, like their fathers who did not have faith in the LORD their God; they spurned His laws and the covenant that He had made with their fathers, and the warnings He had given them. They went after delusion and were deluded; [they imitated] the nations that were about them, which the LORD had forbidden them to emulate. They rejected all the commandments of the LORD their God; they made molten idols for themselves–two calves–and they made a sacred post and they bowed down to all the host of heaven, and they worshiped Baal. They consigned their sons and daughters to the fire; they practiced augury and divination, and gave themselves over to what was displeasing to the LORD and vexed Him. The LORD was incensed at Israel and He banished them from His presence; none was left but the tribe of Judah alone.

Psalm 60 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1 O God, you have cast us off and broken us;

you have been angry;

oh, take us back to you again.

2 You have shaken the earth and split it open;

repair the cracks in it, for it totters.

3 You have made your people know hardship;

you have given us wine that makes us stagger.

4 You have set up a banner for those who fear you,

to be a refuge from the power of the bow.

5 Save us by your right hand and answer us,

that those who are dear to you may be delivered.

6 God spoke from his holy place and said:

“I will exult and parcel out Shechem;

I will divide the valley of Succoth.

7 Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine;

Ephraim is my helmet and Judah my scepter.

8 Moab is my wash-basin,

on Edom I throw down my sandal to claim it,

and over Philistia will I shout in triumph.”

9 Who will lead me into the strong city?

who will bring me into Edom?

10 Have you not cast us off, O God?

you no longer go out, O God, with our armies.

11 Grant us your help against the enemy,

for vain is the help of man.

12 With God we will do valiant deeds,

and he shall tread our enemies under foot.

Matthew 7:1-5 (An American Translation):

[Jesus continued,]

Pass no more judgments upon other people, so that you may not have judgment passed upon you. For you will be judged by the standard you judge by, and men will pay you back with the same measure you have used with them. Why do you keep looking at the speck in your brother’s eye, and pay no attention to the beam that is in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Just let me get that speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a beam in your own? You hypocrite! First get the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see to get the speck out of your brother’s eye.

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The Collect:

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Canadian Anglican Lectionary has skipped over many details to arrive at the summary, so follow the bouncing balls with me while I summarize those parts of 2 Kings over which the lectionary has skipped.

We begin in the Kingdom of Judah.

Jehoash/Joash (836-798 B.C.E.)

Amaziah (798-769 B.C.E.)

Azariah/Uzziah (785-733 B.C.E.)

Jotham (759-743 B.C.E.)

Ahaz (743/735-727/715 B.C.E.)

Hezekiah (727/715-698/687 B.C.E.)

(Dates from page 2111 of The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford University Press, 2004)

We have already part of the account of the reign of Jehoash/Joash of Judah from 2 Chronicles. So we can move along to his son and successor, Amaziah. He generally pleased God but did not remove the idolatrous shrines and altars. The text criticizes him for killing just his father’s assassins but sparing their children. (See 2 Kings 14:5-6 and Deuteronomy 24:16.) He also lost a war to King Jehoash/Joash of Israel.

Azariah/Uzziah, Amaziah’s son, reigned for 52 years. Like his father, he generally pleased God yet did not remove the places of idolatry. The text says that God struck him with leprosy as punishment for this sin of omission. So his son Jotham reigned as regent then king. Jotham, the text tells us, displeased God and did not remove the shrines and altars either.

which might indicate a rite of passage, not a child sacrifice, but does not sound good, whatever it was, and

sacrificed and made offerings at the shrines, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.

And Ahaz, while a captive of King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel, bribed the Assyrian king to deliver him. The bribe consisted of the gold and silver at the Jerusalem Temple. Ahaz also ordered the construction of a new pagan altar–a replica of one at Damascus–at Jerusalem then made a public offering at it.

Hezekiah succeeded his father, Ahaz, as king. We will read about him another day.

A note about dating the reigns of ancient kings is in order. I have checked various study Bibles and found slightly different regnal dates for the same monarchs. The B.C./A.D. or, if you prefer, B.C.E./C.E. dating system is about 1500 years old. So it obviously did not exist at the time of the events of which we are reading. Converting dates from one calendar to another can also be tricky. And ancient documents provided relativistic dates, such as

In the twelfth year of King Ahaz of Judah….

If one does not know when King Ahaz of Judah reigned, this does not help. Furthermore, taking a literal reading of all these relativistic dates leads to chronological inconsistencies. So sometimes an honest historian or student of history must plead confusion.

Now I move along to the Kingdom of Israel.

Jehoahaz (817-800 B.C.E.)

Jehoash/Joash (800-784 B.C.E.)

Jeroboam II (788-747 B.C.E.)

Zechariah (747 B.C.E.)

Shallum (747 B.C.E.)

Menachem (747-737 B.C.E.)

Pekahiah (737-735 B.C.E.)

Pekah (735-732 B.C.E.)

Hoshea (732-722 B.C.E)

(Dates from page 2111 of The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford University Press, 2004)

The last Kings of Israel came in for bad reviews from the narrator. A recurring condemnation is that they persisted in the sins of their predecessors. Among these sins was idolatry. The last strong monarch of Israel was Jeroboam II, who reigned for 41 years and expanded his kingdom’s borders. Then everything went downhill. Zechariah was the last king of the Jehu Dynasty. His reign ended because Shallum assassinated him. Shallum reigned for one month before Menahem killed him.

Menahem was an especially bad character. He attacked the territory of Tiphsah. The people did not surrender, so he

massacred [its people] and ripped open all its pregnant women.

Like his predecessors, Menahem persisted in the traditional sins of the Kings of Israel. He also paid tribute to the Assyrian king after an Assyrian invasion. Pekahiah succeeded his father, persisted in the sins of the Kings of Israel, and reigned for two years, dying of an assassination.

Pekah, the next king, was the assassin. The text says that he reigned for twenty years, but he ruled from Samaria for closer to two years. The only way to avoid a contradiction between these two facts is to say that he was running a parallel government for the rest of the time. The Assyrian conquest of Israel began during his reign, for the first part of the forced exile commenced. Hoshea assassinated Pekah and became the last King of Israel. He was really a vassal of the Assyrian king, however.

Here ends the history lesson and begins the rest of my text.

I admit it: I have little new to say. “Idolatry is bad.” There is a post about that in this series. “Theocracy is also a bad idea.” I have written that in at least two posts, one of them in this recent series. “Let us be quick to comfort, not cast blame, in difficult times.” There is also a recent post about that. So, instead of repeating myself in this post, I conclude with the preceding recap and move along.

The ten northern tribes lost their identities religiously before they lost them politically. But their descendants live on the planet. The populations are spread out across the Old World. Their cultural markers have not faded entirely. But the ten tribes did not return home.

The recent stories from 1-2 Kings have been sad. They did not have to be this way, however. May our choices work out better.